In the development of machines for handling crops such as lettuce, cabbages and the like, the standard procedure was to take non-erected cartons and deliver them to the fields by a transport with a worker disposing the non-erected cartons along the rows at intervals. The field hand would reach for a carton and erect the same, and cut the head of the lettuce or the like from the plant and position the head in the carton until the carton was filled. The butt of the head always was positioned upward in the carton. The butt was subsequently washed by a person carrying a bucket of water and going from carton to carton with a brush or hand operated sprayer which would wash the butt of the head to prevent browning of the butt. The consumer does not like to have lettuce which shows brown spots even on the butt. The washing removes the sap sufficiently to prevent browning.
Subsequent to the packing of the cartons in the field, a second transport would arrive with workers who pick up the cartons and place them on the transport. In some instances the carton would be sealed by other workers prior to being put on the transport or they would be sealed subsequent to their having been placed on the transport.
More recently, machines have been devised to feed cartons or crates (Huston U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,590,965 and 2,699,877) along rows on wings extending outwardly from a transport so that the field hands could remove the crates, load the crates and put them back on conveyors which were disposed on the wings for moving the crates inwardly of the wings towards the central area for removal thereof and subsequent washing and sealing. Martin, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,699,277 and 2,804,739 are typical harvesting units for lettuce and similar crops which provide conveyors on wings or the like.
Other type harvesters for similar head crops are Baker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,013; Abatti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,784; Munoz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,468; McLaren, U.S. Pat. No. 2,337,615; Rodriguez, U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,395; Tarkinton, U.S. Pat. No. 1,504,846; Huston, U.S. Pat. No. 2,473,587; and Garrett, U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,234.